The New Hampshire Humanities Council has awarded a $1,870 grant to KSC journalism lecturer Roger Martin for his project,  “Adam’s Vision, Book XI, Paradise Lost.” To make John Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, more accessible to the modern public, at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 29, and on Thursday, April 5, Keene State College will host a dual event beginning with a panel discussion recorded live for broadcast and open to public discussion. Humanists Eugene McCarthy, Rodger Martin, and Michael Wakefield (also a lecturer in journalism and a composer/musician), will discuss with a Keene State Television host what makes Book XI of Paradise Lost meaningful for a contemporary audience and what makes this book different from the other eleven books in the epic.

The panel will be digitally recorded so that DVDs of the event can be distributed to public-access TV stations in N.H. and Mass.

"My third grade class of only six students with their pumpkins we carved. It was easy to have everyone bring a pumpkin to school because the whole village grows them in their gardens! (Typically to use to feed their animals.)" Photo courtesy of Tracy Minard

Most students look for a college that’s far enough away from home, but not too far away. It’s nice to be able to get home for long weekends, or when the laundry gets too piled up. But Tracy Minard ’10 sure isn’t most students. She grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and made her first long trip to Keene when she arrived as a freshman. She studied English and minored in writing, but even moving across a large continent didn’t assuage her wanderlust. She spent a semester abroad in Florence and did an internship with the Center for International Studies in Northampton, Mass.

But distant horizons still beckoned, and she joined the Peace Corps before she’d even graduated from KSC. It must not have been to out of character for her, though. When she told her friends what she’d done, they all responded, “Of course you’re joining the Peace Corps, Tracy!” Now she’s living in a small Muslim village in the Rhodopi Mountains in southern Bulgaria, teaching English to grades 2–8.
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Following a brave fight against cancer, former Associate Professor of Geography Kristin J Alvarez died peacefully in her sleep. Prof. Alvarez started teaching at KSC in the fall of 1999, earning a reputation as an excellent geography teacher and a leader in social science education, committed to broadening the geography education experience for students. She was also recognized for her integrity, work ethic, and indomitable spirit.

Dr. Alvarez left Keene State College in 2009 when she was offered a signature opportunity at the University of Redlands in California that allowed her to work with a local school district and a brand new high school to infuse geospatial technologies and spatial thinking into the curriculum.

Dr. Alvarez and her family maintained a Caring Bridge page for her. Enter  kristinalvarez in the “Visit a Site” box.

Remember Anthony Bishop ’94, former design/tech major at Keene State College? Well, he’s now the art director for the new NBC game show Who’s Still Standing? You can visit him on the set in this YouTube promo video (Anthony appears at the 2:26 mark). Check it out and drop him a big congratulations via the “Comments” link below.

KSC recently received grants to preserve and protect its most valuable collections and archived material.

The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the College  $5,560 for “Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan and Staff Training to Preserve Special Collections and Film Archives.” The project will help create a disaster preparedness and recovery plan for the College’s archives, special collections, and film holdings; provide staff with training in emergency preparedness and response planning; and prepare disaster supply kits. The College’s holdings consist of over 250 linear feet of archival and manuscript material and over 6,000 volumes of print and bound materials, covering predominantly the disciplines of history, literature, poetry, film studies, Holocaust and genocide studies, and anthropology. The Film Archives holdings include approximately 1,000 color and black & white motion-picture films.
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